부산대학교 도서관

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) occurs in approximately 60-80% of those who survive over 100 days after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). However, the pathophysiology of cGVHD is poorly understood. To gain more insight into the immunological mechanism of cGVHD, we examine cytokine production of peripheral blood T cells from 19 patients in the chronic phase of allo-HSCT. The percentage of IFN-γ-producing CD8 T cells among CD8 T cells was significantly higher in patients with or without cGVHD than in normal control subjects (P < 0.001). On the other hand, the percentage of IL-4-producing CD8 T cells among CD8 T cells was significantly higher in patients with cGVHD (mean 3.3%; range 1.3-8.2%) than in patients without cGVHD (mean 1.2%; range 0.8-1.7%) and normal control subjects (mean 1.1%; range 0.1-1.6%) (both P < 0.001). By contrast, the percentage of IL-4-producing CD4 T cells was not different among patients with and without cGVHD and normal controls. These findings suggest that IL-4-producing CD8 T cells may be an immunological marker of cGVHD.